Int J Clin Pract

Sumatriptan suppositories for the acute treatment of migraine. S2B351 Study Group.

Year 1998
Tepper SJ. Cochran A. Hobbs S. Woessner M.
Glaxo Wellcome, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, NC 27709, USA.
A randomised, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial was undertaken to assess the efficacy and tolerability of the sumatriptan suppository in 184 patients with acute migraine. Patients used a sumatriptan suppository (12.5 mg or 25 mg) or placebo at home for the treatment of a moderate or severe migraine attack and those who experienced headache recurrence within 24 hours of dosing had the option to repeat the dose. By 2 hours post-dose, 68% of patients in the sumatriptan 25 mg group and 47% of patients in the sumatriptan 12.5 mg group compared with 25% of placebo patients achieved headache relief. Relief rates 2 hours post-dose for nausea, vomiting, photophobia and phonophobia were similar to those reported 2 hours post-dose for headache. Post hoc review of the recurrence data showed that administration of a second suppository was effective in alleviating recurrent headache in over 80% of the sumatriptan-treated patients experiencing recurrence. No serious or unusual adverse events were reported, and the pattern and incidence of adverse events did not vary as a function of dose. These data demonstrate that the sumatriptan suppository is a well-tolerated, effective treatment for the acute treatment of migraine pain and its associated symptoms.

Retroperitoneal perforation of duodenal ulcer presenting as scrotal sepsis.

Year 1998
Rajasekar A. Macintyre IM.
Department of General Surgery, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh.
Retroperitoneal extravasation is an extremely uncommon complication of duodenal ulcer perforation. The preoperative diagnosis is difficult and may even by missed at operation. There were 25 cases reported in the literature. Only one patient was correctly diagnosed preoperatively and only seven patients survived. We describe the first case of retroperitoneal extravasation from perforated duodenal ulcer presenting as scrotal sepsis.

Saved by a hernia: an unusual presentation of ovarian cancer.

Year 1998
Matthews SJ. McClelland HR.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Belfast City Hospital, NI.
A lump in the groin of a 75-year-old woman co-existed with a single ovarian cyst. It was eventually diagnosed as a solitary necrotic omental metastasis from a cystadenocarcinoma of the ovary which had herniated through the femoral canal.

Community-acquired Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea in a patient with colonic carcinoma.

Year 1998
Heymann TD. Rampton DS.
Department of Gastroenterology, Kingston Hospital, Surrey, UK.
In the vast majority of cases, Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea and pseudomembranous colitis develop following the use of antibiotics. We report a case in which C. difficile-associated diarrhoea was diagnosed in the absence of previously reported predisposing factors. It transpired that the patient had a colonic carcinoma. We suggest that a diagnosis of C. difficile-associated diarrhoea in the absence of a history of antibiotics or other established causes should prompt a colonoscopy to search for alternative explanations for the alteration in bowel flora which such an infection indicates.